Ponies for Everyone!

Once a week or so, Brigid informs me that it is, in fact, her night to put both herself and Caitlin to bed.

She always says it like she's expecting me to fight her on it, but I think she'd be absolutely shocked to find out just how much I wish that this was a possibility. Think of what I'd be able to do with those two hours of free time if she took over the bedtime process...

Maybe I wouldn't have two weeks of clean laundry, waiting to be folded (which I did, until I finally managed to get around to it last night, because I was tired of digging my undergarments out of the laundry basket...). Or, maybe I could vacuum, so it wouldn't look like my dogs rolled in the grass in the backyard, then brought enough of it in with them to coat the entire first floor with a heavy layer of dust (which they did, on both counts...). Maybe I could finally watch enough of my DVR'd television shows that the DVR would stop randomly deleting things before I got around to seeing them, due to a lack of space (damn that DVR...).

Or maybe I could just go to bed at a decent hour?

Instead, Brigid's offer is just a tease of what could be, or what is to come, when my children are a little more self-sufficient. In the meantime, I GUESS I can continue to rock my babies to sleep, and read them bedtime books, and cuddle with them for as long as they'll let me, and sniff their clean heads when they're looking the other way, since if one four-year old in particular were to catch me sniffing her hair, she'd roll her eyes at me and say, 'Mooooommy. You're too close!'

Not that I heard that from her last night when I was putting her to bed, or anything. I'm just guessing that's how it would go...

But on the nights when Brigid decides she's in charge of Caitlin? I get to see her help me dry the baby off, get her dressed, brush her hair.

And really, that's SO much better than clearing the DVR or living with dust-free floors, I think. Now, is it better than getting more sleep? Eh.

Maybe that's a tie...